1. Field of the Invention
Genetic evolution has afforded an extraordinary array of biological capabilities in nature. The various organisms or cells achieve these different functions by producing a wide variety of proteins, many of which in turn can produce a wide variety of non-proteinaceous molecules. These naturally occurring compounds can interact with their environment modifying the environment for good and bad.
It has been found that certain organisms are capable of nucleating the formation of ice. Ice nucleation is of substantial commercial interest as a factor in inducing frost injury to plants, in atmospheric precipitation processes and in commercial snowmaking. Therefore, the ability to control the ice nucleating capability of microorganisms or to produce products having such nucleation capability can be employed in a wide range of agricultural, commercial, recreational or environmental situations. The ice nucleating microorganisms can be used for preventing supercooling of water, in snowmaking machines, in ice rinks, or other situations where supercooling is energy inefficient.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of papers have been published concerning the effect of bacteria on ice nucleation. See, for example, Lindow et al., Proc. Am. Phytopathol. Soc. (1977) 4.1976:169; Arny et al., Nature (1976) 262:282-283; Lindow et al. Phytophathology (1978) 68:523-528; Lindow et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. (1978) 36:831-838; Lindow et al., Proc. Am. Phytopathol Soc. (1977) 3.1976:224. See also, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,045,910, 4,161,084, and 4,200,228. See also, copending application Ser. No. 294,604, filed Aug. 20, 1981, and references cited therein.